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superficiality, trivia and the profane

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The cable deregulation bill [in Wisconsin drew] national attention.

...

media correspondent Rick Karr said in a phone interview from New York ... that he was drawn to the debate in Wisconsin because it forms an evocative backdrop for looking at the "ways in which laws are made these days."

He said he is especially interested in exploring the impact of "Astroturf" groups on legislative debates and identifying instances where corporate interests are able to co-opt unlikely allies.

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Looking at the footer on HandsOff, but that didn't provide any information on who was actually running the site. The "about us" section just said things like "Hands Off The Internet is a nationwide coalition of Internet users." Which begs the question, "Who are the members of this 'national coalition of Internet users?"

This lead me to take a look at the "Membership Organizations" section -- and low and behold, membership organizations included:

AT&T
Bell South
Cingular Communications
The National Association of Manufacturer
and a host of industry front groups

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"Grassroots Enterprise works for a wide range of corporations, trade associations, nonprofit organizations, and industry coalitions to help them recruit, educate, and mobilize potential supporters...most of our clients take advantage of our extensive experience in building web-based communications and
advocacy programs, as well as our expertise in message development, grassroots and grasstops organizing, and political strategy...Our proprietary software platform, Grassroots Multiplier=AE has all the key features needed to wage effective online campaigns...Much of our client work and clients are confidential."

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"TSE Enterprises, LLC has been engineering web sites and portals, interactive multimedia, and electronic multimedia (EDM) campaigns for public relations, public affairs, and political groups nationwide."

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To mobilize elderly Americans in an effort to overturn the new Medicare coverage policy for erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs, which boost red blood cell production), Amgen Inc. appears to have borrowed a strategy from the purveyors of alternative medicine.

The company launched a "Protect Cancer Patients" website, where visitors were invited to submit testimonials about the healing powers of ESAs. Also, they could contact members of Congress, or review the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services coverage decision and the House and Senate resolutions to vacate it.

Though the Internet designation ".org" suggests that the site is operated by an advocacy group, the "privacy policy" section notes that "this site is owned and operated by Amgen Inc." and can be used for communications with the company.

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For a grassroots organization, there's not much evidence of local involvement or of transparency, though: the group does not disclose board members, membership rolls, or donor records. It does not list an address but a PO box. It lists no staff or contacts apart from Roemke. It has no obvious local structures or branches. It calls IPTV the "technology of the future" (neither Verizon nor satellite providers offer IPTV; only AT&T is rolling it out nationally). And it does not give any contact information for its domain name; in fact, the information was deliberately obscured by switching it from J/T to Domains by Proxy.

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So instead, according to Mr. Treglia, liberal reform groups created a Potemkin movement. A study last month by the Political Money Line, a nonpartisan Web site dealing with campaign funding issues, found that of the $140 million spent to directly promote liberal campaign reform in the last decade, a full $123 million came from just eight liberal foundations. Many are the same foundations that provide much of the money for such left-wing groups as People for the American Way and the Earth Action Network. The "movement" behind campaign-finance reform resembled many corporate campaigns pushing legislation. It consisted largely of "Astroturf" rather than true "grass-roots" support.